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Legal Watch: Take-Two Subpoena; CNET Lawsuit

A couple of developments on the legal front from companies dealing with possible transactions…

— Take-Two: The video game maker facing a hostile threat from Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) disclosed in an SEC filing today that it is fighting an FTC subpoena to provide certain info to the agency, related to its anti-trust investigation into the proposed deal. Take-Two is fighting the offer from EA, and it claims the FTC’s demands are: “unnecessarily broad and would entail unacceptable additional expense to the Company.” It’s already provided the FTC with some data, and it’s not clear what, specifically, it’s objecting to. It hopes to limit the scope of the investigation.

— CNET: This looks like it probably won’t go anywhere, but an old options backdating suit has — surprise — evolved into a complaint about the company’s proposed sale to CBS (NYSE: CBS). In a filing with the SEC , the plaintiffs allege that the board and management breached its fiduciary duty by agreeing to sell. Boiled down: The suit claims CNET (NSDQ: CNET) insiders are profiting from their “ill-received” stock options, which, courtesy of CBS, are no longer under water.